By Steve Shaw|2017-09-22T11:12:16+00:00September 22nd, 2017|
So you’re starting a blog for your business? Or perhaps have a fledgling one with a few posts, but not much to show for it yet?
Firstly, congratulations. You’ve made a big step in the right direction.
Approached in the right way, your blog can end up becoming one of your business’s biggest assets.
One day you can look back and feel pretty—dare I say it—smug.
You’ll have incoming traffic, highly targeted for your business, arriving on auto-pilot and providing a constant supply of leads and new customers for your business.
(Plus you’ll have ready content to use to keep in touch with existing customers, build your relationship with them, and keep them coming back for more…)
By Steve Shaw|2017-09-08T12:34:16+00:00September 8th, 2017|
If you’re in B2B, are you using LinkedIn to its full potential?
The good news is that LinkedIn can form a valuable part of your content marketing strategy.
There are some easy ways to use the platform to get more eyeballs on your content and build your brand, along with your influence, authority and of course traffic back to your site.
This post gives you 5 key content marketing strategies for LinkedIn that you can start using today.
By Steve Shaw|2017-06-28T14:13:55+00:00June 15th, 2017|
Over the last few years Instagram has skyrocketed in popularity. It seems that everyone from teens to businesses of all sizes are making good use of the photo sharing social network.
This may have you wondering if you should be leveraging Instagram as an additional marketing platform for your own business. A lot of businesses focus solely on Twitter or Facebook and completely ignore Instagram, despite the often higher levels of engagement Instagram attracts.
But where do you even start?
If you’re thinking about possibly adding Instagram to your current social media marketing strategy, this post shows you how to do so and why it’s a worthwhile strategy.
In this post, you’ll discover:
What Instagram is, it’s target demographic, and some key stats
5 key ways Instagram can benefit your business
How to get started on Instagram for your own business
Basic 1-2-3 tips for using Instagram successfully
How some major brands – as well as smaller businesses – are using Instagram effectively
Creative ways for you to incorporate Instagram into your digital marketing strategy.
By Steve Shaw|2018-08-02T16:36:44+00:00June 9th, 2017|
Are you struggling to produce enough content for your website, blog, or social media channels? Don’t worry, you’re not alone.
The not-so-secret key to a successful content marketing strategy is creating high-quality and in-depth content. However, this takes a good deal of time, effort, and often money, all of which can discourage many businesses from taking full advantage.
In fact, research shows that producing enough content is one of the top three challenges that businesses pursuing content marketing face.
However, there are strategies you can adopt to ease the process and make it a whole lot easier.
As I frequently cover on this blog, one such strategy is to repurpose your existing content as new content you can then publish, share and distribute. Repurposing content saves you time and money, while extending your reach.
Simply put, repurposing your content and sharing it in different ways via different channels allows you to reach (and attract) a much wider proportion of your marketplace. The larger the audience you develop across multiple content platforms, the more influence you have. This increases engagement, boosting your reach significantly through sharing and inbound linking.
In other words, the more content you repurpose and share, the greater the long-term benefits for your business.
In addition, it’s no longer enough to just publish content to your own site. As I advise frequently, you need to be where your marketplace is, not where you want them to be.
Repurposing existing content for other platforms allows you to achieve it relatively easily.
But how exactly do you go about repurposing content for social media?
We previously covered a broader set of 50+ killer ways to repurpose your content. However, in this post we go into more detail and dig down into the main social channels to help you determine:
Which content on your blog you should be repurposing
The strategy to use to repurpose it for each social platform
By Steve Shaw|2018-08-02T16:23:56+00:00May 25th, 2017|
It’s an undisputed fact that a social media presence for businesses has become essential.
However, the tangible benefits of social media for your business are rarely explained very well and typically only focus on the major social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
It makes sense to figure out which networks are the most useful for you to dedicate your time and efforts to, and then stick with those. There are so many different options that it can be difficult to figure out which ones are actually useful.
Here’s one you might not have thought about: Snapchat.
Snapchat’s been around for awhile, it started in 2011, but it’s not a platform many businesses are familiar with. Maybe you looked at it when it first came out, determined that it catered to a different crowd, and dismissed it. Or maybe it was a bit overwhelming and you never figured out how to make it work for you so you dropped it.
So it’s no surprise that it’s only recently that businesses have taken notice of Snapchat’s possibility as a marketing tool.
But is it right for you?
That’s what this post aims to help you determine. We’ll show you exactly what Snapchat is and offer some creative ways for you to use Snapchat in order to build an online presence that benefits your business for the long-term.
This post gives you:
A brief overview of Snapchat
Key brands using Snapchat
5 creative ways to use Snapchat to build your online presence
By Steve Shaw|2018-08-02T16:11:52+00:00October 10th, 2016|
You may have seen the Moments lightning bolttab on Twitter, first made available in 2015. Initially, Moments were created by Twitter’s own team of curators.
After a year or so, in August 2016, Moments were made available to selected influencers, partners and brands to start using too. Then a month or so later, at the end of September 2016, they became available to all, announced via a Tweet:
Now all Twitter users can take advantage of Moments as an additional way to engage with followers and others on the platform.
This post tells you:
What Twitter Moments actually are.
How to create one yourself.
Examples of key people and businesses who are using Moments.
10 top ways you can start to use Moments for your business in imaginative ways to engage with and attract your marketplace.
By Steve Shaw|2018-08-02T15:56:42+00:00September 26th, 2016|
Many businesses use Twitter with only a vague notion of why they are there. They use it because they feel they should be, but there’s little strategy behind it. Consequently, they barely scrape the surface of what Twitter has to offer for their business.
Others may tap into some of the benefits of Twitter, but ignore or fail to utilise many others.
The following list provides you with 20 rapid-fire ways to use Twitter to benefit your business that you can start putting into action today, whether you’re a Twitter old-timer or relatively new on the platform. […]
By Steve Shaw|2018-09-28T04:48:36+00:00September 12th, 2016|
Social media continues to evolve. Increasing numbers of businesses are investing in paid social media advertising for both increasing the reach of their content, and for targeting their specific market on a granular level.
Research shows that over half of B2B businesses, and three quarters of B2C businesses, are using paid social media advertising as part of their content marketing activities.
But just look at how it’s grown in the space of a year. As the following charts illustrate, paid advertising usage on social media has shot up sharply for both B2B and B2C.
But with so many social networks available, it’s confusing where to start. There’s no one-size-fits-all social advertising solution. Different networks will suit different businesses and advertising approaches.
This post reviews 10 different social networks that provide paid advertising opportunities. I share the demographics of each network (including network size) and the advertising options available.
Plus, so you can see what can be achieved, I share successful case studies for each platform, along with real data wherever possible.
By Steve Shaw|2018-09-28T04:54:26+00:00September 3rd, 2016|
We’re continually told social media for business is essential.
But why?
What exactly are the benefits for business owners?
According to Statista, a massive 90% of small and medium-sized businesses use social media, with the number of active users continuing to climb:
But many business owners only have a notional concept of why they are there. Often it’s just a basic presence in order to tick the box.
For many, it’s all too bewildering and kept at arm’s length, save for the occasional half-hearted update. With only small followings, social postings are often followed by a discouraging complete lack of response. Is it any wonder they fail to invest in a more robust social media presence?
The only problem is, a failure to invest enough time and attention into their social media activities is one reason why the benefits remain elusive. It’s largely self-defeating.
It’s essential that you have a clear idea of why you’re using social media. Most business owners haven’t clearly defined why they are using it or what it will accomplish for them.
National Association of Sales Professionals (Nancy Marmolejo)
Unfortunately, the real benefits of social media for business are rarely explained very well, or only in vague ideas of engagement and reach that many struggle to relate to.
So this post aims to set that straight. What follows are 12 clear but very important benefits your business gains from investing in a real, active and engaging presence on social media.
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